The field of the present invention is the preparation of nucleic acid for study, research and investigation.
It is common to require nucleic acid to be isolated and purified (i.e., prepared) from various tissues in order to detect the presence of a particular nucleic acid--for example, the presence of HIV-1 DNA or RNA in a blood cell of a human. For this purpose, the nucleic acid is generally extracted after extensive purification of appropriate blood cells, lysis of these cells and purification of the released nucleic acids to remove substances that might inhibit later analytical procedures. In particular, it is important to produce nucleic acid of a quality and purity to allow its amplification.
Two common methods which allow amplification of a specified sequence of nucleic acid (e.g., deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) or ribonucleic acid (RNA)) are one termed the "polymerase chain reaction" (where two primers are used to synthesize nucleic acid lying between the regions where the primers hybridize), and one which uses RNAse H, reverse transcriptase and RNA polymerase. These methods are described respectively by Mullis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,202 and by Kacian et al., PCT/U.S. Ser. No. 90/03907 both hereby incorporated by reference herein.